Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government is committed to improving mental health and wellness services in the justice system and it’s absolutely going to take a partnership between the Department of Health and Social Services, Justice, as well as the other social departments.

We have followed up on the motion that was put forward in the 16th Assembly and also

recommendations from Member Bromley and committee to move forward with this, and I have committed previously that we are going to move forward and come up with some decision points that can be reviewed by committee. But the first thing that happens and has to happen is we

actually have to finish the research and get out there and get all the information together.

We have developed or we are in the process of finalizing a work plan, which we hope to share with committee in August, and that work plan is going to identify what the objectives are, what the different roles of the different departments are, all the things that they’re asking for in this motion and that will be available in August.

But the motion that is before us today goes a little bit further and asks us to introduce diversion measures, including specialized courts. This may be something that we do actually do, but before we actually agree to do a diversion court, we have to finish the analysis, finish the research and get that information in front of committee. That information has to be in front of committee so that we can all make an informed decision together. We want to have that information in front of committee before the end of this fiscal year so that we can actually do design on whatever the recommendations happen to be, whether it’s a diversion court or other integrated programs or other diversion prior to court. I mean, we need to have all that information in front of committee so that we can make a decision so that in the next fiscal year we can actually do design.

There’s a lot of things that sort of happen and interact with this. For instance, if it comes to diversion court, a diversion court will not be successful without the support of the judiciary. So we need to make sure that whatever programs are in place to divert people in, meet the needs and the desires of the judiciary.

So there’s still lots of work to be done. We’re going to do the analysis. It’s going to be in front of committee so they can make decision points this fiscal year, and we can proceed with design in the next fiscal year depending on whatever direction is given and we can move forward.

So although we’re on the same path, we have a slightly different opinion. We look forward to working with committee to actually make those decisions when we’re ready. Given that this is a direction to Cabinet, Cabinet will be abstaining. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.